Remember when New Jersey's bid for Dwight Howard fell through, then they panicked and swapped a top-three protected 2012 pick to Portland for Gerald Wallace, and everyone said, "Wait a second, why would someone give up a top-three protected pick for the third-best player on a sub-.500 team?" Not reported at the time: New Jersey could have landed Pierce for that same pick, only they chose Wallace because he was a full five years younger.

So apparently we could have had Paul Pierce instead of Gerald Wallace. While Pierce is (in my mind) still one of the best scorers in this league, he does cost a lot more while Gerald Wallace has a player option next year. But the pick is a pretty important one because its only top 3 protected and this upcoming draft is considered a deep one. I think Gerald Wallace complements Deron better but like I said, Paul Pierce, while 4 years older, is still one of the most lethal forwards in the league. Also I heard Doc Rivers was very against breaking up the big 3 and wanted one more year to compete for the title so maybe thats why we ended up with Gerald instead.

good question. i guess the most important thing these days is whether a potential move makes d-will (and howard) happy.

i included howard because i recently read that the magic had lined up a trade to the lakers at the deadline and the magic gave him the choice of either being traded or opting in. so it was not the betrayal of the nets that i thought at the time, and he still wants to play here, apparently. just that we probably won't be able to get him in FA, which sucks.

this holding up of the whole franchise just to keep pursuing these guys is getting really old, but once we traded for d-will it became kind of impossible to do otherwise...

Before the Big Three could make it past the trade deadline, Allen-to-the-Grizzlies had to fall apart and discussions on a deal that would have sent Paul Pierce to the New Jersey Nets for an expiring Mehmet Okur contract and a lottery pick never reached completion, league sources said. Celtics general manager Danny Ainge loves the talent in the 2012 NBA draft, but he still gets one more run, one more chance with this group in the Eastern Conference playoffs.